[SerpentDove]

>>- If Whitcomb's story is accurate, why is the sniper who pulled the trigger considered the one at fault rather than those who designed the HRT response and gave the orders? Seems that more than anything
this was a massive failure, if not deliberate crime, on the part of leadership.<<

Are you familiar with the Nuremburg trials? "I wass just following orderrsss" is no defense.

[Wordsmith]

Thanks! I agree, "just following orders" is not necessarily a valid excuse. But, from Whitcomb's account at least, the snipers weren't given enough information to make that call. They were told, in essence, "officer down attempting to serve a legimate warrant, suspects armed and dangerous". The decision to shoot first, while near the extreme end of the list of valid responses, didn't necessarily seem to Horiuchi (he was the shooter, correct?) to be entirely off the reservation based on the limited information the HRT response team was given. This is why I'd like to read up on it some more. I wasn't following the news back in '94, and have only sketchy knowledge of the incident to go with my reading of Cold Zero.